Newborns

A couple of pics from the breeder! The two girls...

...and the 9 boys!The puppies are about about 10 days old now.

Wild Wild West

Today is DH's and my 3rd wedding anniversary. Three years ago, DH's Big Brother and family gave us some gift certificates through Select Registry, a company that allows you to use certificates at hundreds of B&Bs, inns, resorts, etc. around the country. We finally cashed ours in last weekend, to celebrate our anniversary, at the Tanque Verde Ranch, here in Tucson.

We had a great time. DH said he was worried that taking a mini-vacation without leaving town would be kind of anti-climatic, but he admitted he was wrong. I told them it was our anniversary when we made the reservations, but we only paid for the cheapest room available (student loans, you know). The guy on the phone said they'd put us in the best room available upon check-in. I was a little hopeful, given that July in Tucson is not exactly peak season. But I was not expecting the best room in the place, which is what we got. It was a six-person suite, bigger than our whole apartment, that goes for more than three times what we paid. So we were big fans right off the bat.

Breakfast and lunch were buffets with a huge dessert selection at lunch (we're also big fans of food). All meals were included with fruit and pastries available to snack on between meals (even we didn't need that). Alcohol was the only thing not included, but that was okay. It wasn't that kind of weekend.

All activities were also included, horseback riding being the big draw, naturally, at a ranch. There was also mountain biking, hiking, a nature center, tennis, swimming, art lessons, workout room, etc. We pretty much just did the horse riding, with a little swimming thrown in.

Now, when I was little, maybe eight, nine, ten (my mom would know), I used to go to horse camp for a week in the summers. One year my horse took off, full tilt, with me on it. I was terrified and immediately and completely forgot everything I knew about controlling a horse. I got more and more scared as the distance grew on the train between me and my group. Finally, one of the counselors was able to catch up with us and tried to shout at me what to do. I was pretty much frozen. Eventually she was able to grab the reins from her seat on her horse and stop mine for me.

I harbored a moderately intense fear of horses after that. Well, not the horses themselves, but riding them. Sometime in adolescence I rode a very gentle (but tall) horse of a dear family friend, just around her backyard, with her leading it by the reins from the ground. So, not riding so much as passively sitting on the horse. It was all I could do not to scream. I think I hid it very well though. I'm pretty sure my mother was there and probably had no idea I was scared.

So, when we went on our honeymoon to Jamaica three years ago, we were at an all-inclusive resort that offered horseback riding as an excursion. DH loves horseback riding (When we first moved to Tucson, he tried to talk me into buying one of the many properties here with stables. I nipped that in the bud.), so, of course, he was dying to go. He's much more adventurous and adrenaline-seeking than me (Much more is an understatement. We are at opposite ends of the adrenaline spectrum.), but I didn't want to deprive him, he had no one else to go with, so I decided to take a baby step toward conquering my fear. It was a good choice. These horses were so slow it was hard to keep them moving. I didn't even have to steer; they knew the path like the top of their hooves. It was a success.

So I was okay with trying the horse thing again last weekend. We got up early one morning for a nice, easy walk ride. Exact same experience as in Jamaica, only much hotter. And I learned better control of my horse, mostly able to keep it from eating foliage when it was supposed to be walking. Then we signed up for an intermediate lesson. Also a success. I managed to trot my horse without fear, though with a sore rear end. Then we learned loping, which is one step down from a full run, and I even did that. It was fun! Much smoother than the trot. I was able to get him (Boomerang was his name) up to a lope one out of two tries.

Here's where things went downhill. DH and some of the other guys in the class were becoming quite proficient with the loping and decided to take the "lope test" later that day. Basically, you get three chances around the ring to prove that you can lope safely. This allows you to go on the more advanced trail rides. At first I thought I wasn't ready to try that yet, I shouldn't push it, just leave things on a good, positive note and be proud of all the progress I'd made in conquering my fears. But DH thought I looked so confident and proficient (and the instructor had used the word "excellent" with me) and I started to confuse my careful, in-control, Type A nature with DH's adrenaline-loving, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, reckless nature and was fool enough to think I could do it, too.

I failed. Miserably. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. I stayed on the horse. He didn't take off on me. It was more like he couldn't understand me. And the instructor was yelling at me (not mean, but I don't do well under that kind of pressure) and I was trying really hard to do all the things I learned and not panic, but I was so frustrated and confused and embarrassed about why it wasn't working. And I pretty much fell apart. Well, not visibly until I got off the horse. I knew enough to keep it under control so the horse wouldn't get freaked out.

So I did not get to end on a high note. I may have emotionally regressed to the easy walk rides again. But even if I never get the nerve to lope a horse again in my life, at least I did it once. And we loved the resort as a whole. I would definitely go there again. It's worth the money (even without the gift certificates). I would even try a different ranch resort someday. Just give me the easy horses who are more interested in eating the foliage.

Tucson 2006; Jamaica 2003. Speaking of foliage, that seems to be about the only thing that has changed here! I'm pretty sure those are even the same pair of jeans...

Brain Officially Dead

To anyone wondering where I've been: I'm still here, and I'm hoping to accomplish an elaborate post tomorrow, sharing our anniversary weekend at a local resort ranch. Posts are fewer and further between now that I seemed to have been hijacked into what looks suspiciously like a four 10s schedule at work. This is fine, good even, except that it came pretty quickly after I had settled into the nice 16-20 hrs/wk gig I had had going. And I'm still so new in my profession that I feel like I'm at 100% cognitive capacity every single minute I'm at work. When that's 600 minutes a day, it's proving to be overwhelming. In all honesty, the last few hours today I started to question whether I should even be working. Ethically. I know I was making at least some mistakes for that reason alone. Anyway, I know I'll adjust and it will get better. I'm not worried. And I know I'll get no sympathy whatsoever from my MD friends. I'm not worried about that either. :)

Nevertheless, it makes things a bit harder for now. On the bright side, now that I'm out of school, it's great to know that a day off is actually a day off. As opposed to a day where I don't have class, but I still spend 14 hours straight doing schoolwork.

Full House

The puppies are here: 9 boys and 2 girls. Oy. I don't envy Lexie, the dam, right now. No pics yet.

Stay Tuned...

Our puppy's mama is in labor! The litter is being born as I type. Updates to follow as available.

Rejoice!

The prodigal sewing machine has returned and it comes bearing a new pattern selector gear. I picked it up Tuesday afternoon and have already pumped out two rompers for Jonah. *Spoiler alert for Jonah's 'rents: there's a pic at the end of this post.* I hope to get a couple more done this weekend. That kid is going to have a whole new wardrobe via his only auntie come Christmas. That's okay, he's a good excuse for me to practice my sewing skills. Someday, I'll make clothes for my own babies and Jonah will have a chance to say, "You know, back when I was young, your mom was throwing some thread and a needle at a pile of fabric and calling it a romper. Meanwhile, your sitting here in your designer duds and I'm stuck in this potato sack she likes to call clothing. Hmph." And my babies will say, "..." (because they're imaginary babies; they can't talk yet).

Well, the lease is signed and the deposit in, so the rental house is official. We'll have those keys on August 1 and we have our current apartment until August 15, so we have 15 days to make the transition. I'll post pics when we get in there.

The puppies still aren't born yet! Or, if they are, the breeder hasn't posted it on her website yet. Which would be understandable if she has a houseful of new puppies. I feel like such a traitor, sitting here writing about a move and a new puppy with Puck ferociously cuddling and head-butting in my lap. Oh, they are so going to hate us for a while. Their peace will hold out a couple more weeks, though. And I have a stack full of puppy books to get through! I'm actually really looking forward to training this puppy; I think it will be fun for both of us. The not so fun part will be training DH to train the puppy. DH is not so fond of rules and structure and, although I think he knows how important these things are for a dog, I'm not sure he's completely willing yet to follow through on them. But he's so busy with work and school, I think I'll be doing 90% of the training anyway. DH can just show up for playtime, which is the best part anyway! He did say he'd go to as many puppy-kindergarten classes as possible, so that will be a help.

Here's the latest catnip pic. The sprouts keep growing taller, but their stalks aren't getting any thicker, so they're just kind of folding over on themselves because the stalks are getting to be too weak to support the leaves. I didn't remember catnip looking quite like this. The stuff I remember growing in my mom's garden had very thick stalks. Maybe it's just still too young at this point to look anything like it will. The cats seem to recognize it though. I thought I was safe leaving it on the kitchen counter at night because they're pretty well-trained not to jump up there. Turns out they're just well-trained not to do it while we're looking. The plants are now fairly nomadic. Never a night in the same place. My bathroom counter seems to be a haven as I think the cats decided long ago that this was a boring place, not worth visiting. Plus, it can be wet. So they steer clear. For now. One whiff of the catnip and I'm sure it'll become the happening hang-out spot. I can't wait until the plants are big enough to be planted in the ground at our new place and to withstand the affections of the kitties.

And, finally, here are the aforementioned rompers:

Cross Your Fingers

It was a productive weekend. Some waiting is over.

• My Amazon books came and I am happily planning future practice quilts so I can hone my skills and eventually make one for our bed. However, I just don't get this whole scrapbooking thing. I ordered a book that I thought would help, but I just can't "get" it at a creative level. That book may be returned.
• We have an application in for a rental house! It's somewhere between 1500-1600 sq. ft. It has 3 bedrooms and a den, so DH can have his own computer room and I can have my own craft studio! Sooooo excited about that. There's a fenced in yard for the dog. It's about 10 minutes closer to where I work and about 15 minutes closer for DH. It's only drawback is that is has blue carpeting, which I often don't care for anyway, but the carpeting has brown spots in it, as part of the design. I'm sure it's meant to hide dirt, but it just looks like mud splatter everywhere. But, whatever. We figure we can easily live with that for a year or so. And we kept within our ideal price range, which was great, because it was starting to look like we would have to exceed it.
• We put a deposit on a puppy! We also had to fill out an application for the puppy, so please keep your fingers crossed for us regarding both these applications. The puppy's not even born yet. The litter is due any day now. It's a breeder in Oklahoma. A couple with a Master's and PhD who live on a farm with 7 kids. The wife stays home and runs the breeding business. The puppies' colors should be creams, apricots, and reds. We told them we didn't care about the sex, but gave them lots of information about the personality we were looking for in a puppy (i.e., calm, laid-back, calm, not too aggressive, calm, not to shy/insecure, calm, neither the alpha nor the omega, calm, and calm. Oh, and calm.). I'll post a picture when they're born. Still not sure if we're going to drive to OK to pick it up, or have it shipped here. Breeders ship all the time and seem to have success with it, but I'm a little worried about shipping to Tucson in September due to the heat. I'll talk to some breeders and maybe our vet to determine the best plan.
• Still waiting for the sewing machine. Sigh.

Meanwhile, the catnip is growing, the oat grass is recovering, I've made a chicken & garlic stew for dinner tonight (DH's choice as an experiment from the new cookbook), and the house is relatively clean. So, I'm off to copy edit.

Que Pasa?

I was supposed to go see a potential house today after work at about 6:00. I got done at 3:00. Instead of driving the half hour home to turn around and come back, I decided to kill time. I went to buy a fourth pair of scrubs, now that I'm working four days per week. I drove around to familiarize myself with the northwest side of town, now that we may be living there. I explored the Foothills Mall, to which I'd, for some reason, not yet been. Probably because it's one of those outlet malls without any exciting stores; just your standard Levi's, Big Dogs, etc.

But there was a Linens n' Things there, too. I've been looking everywhere for a set of sheets with pink in them with no success (no success with any I like anyway). I want to make a quilt for our bed (after a couple more practice smaller ones) and am dreaming of pinks & browns, but that means convincing DH that pink on the bed won't bother him. So we agreed on a trial set of pink sheets. Today I actually found two sets that I liked, as well as a brown set (clearance, no less!), so I snatched them all up and paid for them before the pink sheet gnomes could come and spirit them out of my arms.

And as I was checking out, I had a little incident. My skills as an SLP got me mistaken for a bilinguist. Some woman, obviously Spanish-speaking, at the cashier next to mine kept asking for "roz." And the cashier kept saying, "Rose? Rose? I don't know what you're talking about." And I asked, helpfully, I thought, "Ross?" (as in Ross Dress for Less, akin to TJ Maxx and probably many others, varying regionally). At which both salesladies and many customers looked at me and smiled as though I were the cleverest person in the store. Unfortunately, the Spanish-speaking woman thought I was clever enough to speak Spanish, which I'm not (yet), but should be, and started saying a lot of Spanish words really fast and everyone was looking at me expectantly... And all I could utter was a meek "No hablo Espanol." And only the English-speakers seemed to grasp that concept. She kept right on spewing rapid-fire Spanish at me. So then I'm wildly flinging my arms around in the air trying to communicate in gesture how she could get to Ross because I'm, in fact, not clever enough to tell her in Spanish. Nothing makes me feel stupider, living in Tucson, than my inability to speak Spanish. That was going to be one of my goals for the summer, but I'm too fully aware of the mass of the undertaking, and other things seemed more fun, in the end. Ultimately, I'll have to do it. Maybe when I'm not so new at the speech path thing and my brain isn't so exhausted every day I'll have more mental energy to devote to that.

Anyway, back to the shopping. I met with more success at the Levi's outlet. A pair of jeans that fit! In a dark rinse! Jeans, or pants of any kind, never fit me, so this was a huge breakthrough.

Then I discovered the Carter's outlet. Good Lord, I think I spend every day fighting off temptation after temptation to buy my nephew more clothes and books. I go through stores picking stuff up, making a little pile, carefully calculating costs, months-old, and sizes in my head, only to finally come to my senses, abandon the pile somewhere for the poor saleslady to find, and skidaddle before the baby-gift-buying demon overtakes me again.

By the time I left the outlet mall to head over to this house for rent, I realized I'd left my phone in the car. Doing so is a sure guarantee that I will have missed at least 17 calls in under 3 minutes. Not quite, this time, but I did miss 5. All from DH, who was frantically trying to warn me that this lady had cancelled. Apparently, her dog died 4 days ago and she's "too distraught to do anything." Normally, I'd be nothing but sympathetic, but DH called her at 4:30 to confirm and that's when she told him she wouldn't be there. Hello? Were you ever going to call us? Or were you just going to let us drive the half hour from where we work to be stood up? So I'm 90% annoyed and only 10% sympathetic.

It was probably an omen. The place was really far away. We live central and ~30 minutes from where we work in the NW. This woman was another 30 minutes west of there. The draw was that there was an acre of fenced in backyard. An acre! What dog needs a park when his backyard is an acre?! But there was also the little problem of the six feral cats she was feeding twice a day. That would have become an issue. So she's off our list. DH will go see two places tomorrow and we'll see a third on Saturday together. Wish us luck.

I know there's at least one Republican reading this blog, so this is fair warning that you may want to scroll past this paragraph, Republican. :) But I feel the need to mention what I see as a poor, poor decision made by my hometown state of New York today regarding gay marriage. I can't say I was as surprised as the gay activists seem to be regarding the state's decision to ban gay marriage, but it's the state's reasoning I get worked up about. One of the main arguments was apparently the questionable wisdom of allowing gays to raise children. What, are we afraid that the straight kids are going to be confused into "gay-ness" by the deviant natures of their adoptive parents? Really, we think they're better off in the foster care system? Really?The moral fabric of society is unraveling as I write this. Oh, wait...it already did. And it ain't the fault of the gays. But that's a whole other gigantic tank of worms. Are we worried about the decline in reproductive rates when this whole gay thing spreads to the hearts and mind

I'm off to watch another gripping episode of "So You Think You Can Dance?" Anyone else as in love with Ivan as I am? Oh...I'm the only one over the age of 14 watching? Never mind.

Here's a current plant picture. I've been shutting the cats out of the bedroom during the day to let the plants sit in the windowsill. One of us messed up this morning and accidentally shut Lita in the room. Entrapment, I know. You can see a little of the minor carnage here, in some snapped grass blades. The catnip was slightly mauled as well, though I don't think it's visible in the crime scene photos. I'm not sure if it was the smell of the catnip or the dirt that lured her in to a life of crime. This one has a strange thing for digging. Always has. Comes from being born in the mean streets of Norwich, NY. Unfit mother, absent father. You know the story.

You can't be any geek off the street. Gotta be handy with the steel, if you know what I mean. Earn your keep!

(please excuse the background-of-questionable-taste; focus on the kitty!)

Waiting

I hate waiting. I should have worked these past two days because I've driven myself crazy.

1. waiting for my sewing machine to be repaired

2. waiting for the quilting and scrapbooking books I ordered from Amazon to arrive

3. waiting for various house rental people to get back to us

4. waiting for various puppy people to get back to us

That's right, we've decided to move our long-term plan up a year and get the dog now. This means moving to a bigger place, so we're looking at houses to rent. So the dog will have a yard, our living space won't be splitting at the seams, and we can live closer to work (we work about 5-10 minutes from one another, but about 35 minutes from where we currently live). I'm very excited about this, but I'm also a member of the "now" generation, so I have very little patience.

In the meantime, here's a wreath I've finally finished (I started it when we were still in Philly, so at least 2-3 years ago).





And the catnip sprouted a couple days ago, so here's where it was on the 2nd. (I didn't take a picture today, but the plant life is abundant in one catnip pot and the grass is starting to look like grass. Sparse grass, but grass nonetheless.)

Sprouts!

The oat grass has sprouted! The challenge I hadn't yet tackled was how to move the pots into an area with decent sunlight without leaving them susceptible to curious paws and noses. My less-than-ideal solution was to put them in the bedroom windowsill with the door shut by day, back to the kitchen counter (where the kitties don't dare set paw) by night. I'm not sure how well this works when the catnip sprouts; it may be too odiferous for them to resist, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it (when did I start using the royal "we"?).

Worked four days this week. It's getting much better now that they've given me a modicum of independence and now that I've reaccepted the student role and stopped fighting it. I also got yet another copy editing job, so I feel like I'm raking in the dough for someone working part-time. Ooh, and I got a surprise couple of days off for this long weekend; I thought I was going to have to work through the holiday.

Sewing machine update: I called Friday afternoon to get the status report and they claim (and I have no reason not to believe them) that the company sent the wrong part! Wah! They had already reordered it, but it could be as long as another two weeks. I'm trying not to think about it and satisfy myself with scrapbooking. I've gotten another four pages done, but it's a poor substitute for the pleasing whir of my machine. Sigh. The wee wonderfuls pattern continues to taunt me from the coffee table (I should put it in a drawer before it taunts me a second time). Meanwhile, other recipients have torn through the kitty and are well on their way to having a bear-rabbit-kitty army.

Holla 'Gaters, SLPs, & Parental Figures

I finally told most of my friends and family about my blog, so welcome to them! (And, of course, welcome to anyone else who stumbles upon my humble, bloggy abode.)

The big news of the day is that my pattern book arrived from wee wonderfuls...yay! Oh, wait, still no sewing machine. Nothing I can do with the pattern but stare at it, abandoned, lifeless and useless on my desk. What a waste. Oh, the humanity.

See guys? See the excitement in wait for your reading pleasure here at feather nester?! I know, I know, you wait with bated breath for the next installment.

Alright, smartypants, I defy you all to start your own, more compelling blogs (no, seriously, start one! I firmly believe it's sharing the minutiae of our days that maintains the feeling of intimacy with friends. Join up!).

'Til then, my cyberfriends...

Seedlings!

Better day at work today. Mainly because at the end of the day, just as I was about to leave, my supervisor asked for feedback on how they were doing training me, if I needed more or less supervision in various areas, etc. I took that opportunity to mention that, no no they were supervision goddesses with nothing to improve upon except, perhaps, not blinding me with the golden sheen of their professional wisdom (gag, gag), but that I was maybe-possibly-just-a-little-bit-kind-of-sort-of feeling like I might not be progressing as fast as they would like me to be. To which she answered that, in fact, they think I'm moving quite fast and that they are actually very impressed with my writing skills. Yay! My linguistic strengths have somehow camouflaged my clinical weaknesses. JK, but it felt really good to get the positive feedback.

DH and I decided it was an ice-cream-for-dinner kind of night so we had our usuals: Starbucks Mud Pie for him, Ben & Jerry's Body & Soul Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough for me. I feel ill now. But satisfied. Trying not to think about the fact that I missed my spinning class today (don't usually work on Mondays) after not going to the gym for a week.

New copy editing job in today, plus I'm feeling exhausted (why am I sleepier now that I'm out of school? Or am I just noticing it more? Exchange with DH on the way to pick up ice cream tonight: "I notice that I consistently get tired at the same time of day, every day. From about 4:30...on."), so not much productive done tonight. However, I did get four scrapbooking pages done last night (this is impressive as I am not really a scrapbookin' sort o' girl; it's also really intimidating to me that it's taken me three years to get through the engagement party section of what is intended to someday be a giant wedding scrapbook) and some seedlings planted, about which I'm very excited. My tentative hope is to plant a bunch of cat-friendly plants in one section of the imaginary garden so that maybe they'll leave whatever else I plant alone. Because all my gardening research has informed me that I can't really plant anything outdoors until September, and because I happened to already have some catnip and oatgrass seeds (from 2000; do seeds go bad?), I decided to try to germinate those indoors for transplantation outdoors in the fall. I can't wait until their little green heads peek through the soil! Oh, and of course I also had to make little ID stakes for each pot, so if they get lost people will know their names.

13

This morning I realized that yesterday was my 13th post. In honor of that, I thought I'd give a little Colgate University tribute as 13 is a very auspicious number to us 'Gate alumni.

In case you didn't know, Colgate University in Hamilton, NY was founded in 1817 by 13 men with 13 dollars and 13 prayers. Recently instituted Colgate Day occurs on every Friday the 13th that occurs during the calendar year. The Colgate 13 are the men's a capella group, who my friends and I followed religiously as undergrads. The 13 would serenade some lucky woman at almost every concert and my friends even got them to sing to me on my birthday one year.

To round out this little mini-tribute, here are 13 things you may or may not know about me:

1. I'm a Sagittarius and pretty much fit the bill.
2. I'm an only child.
3. I can't stand to clean food off dishes once they've been in the sink, even for a second.
4. I was only 18 when I met my husband.
5. I was a rower in college.
6. I've never met a chocolate chip cookie I didn't like.
7. I'm a very good artist when given a pencil and something to copy, but have come up with maybe two original sketches in my life.
8. My right iris has a reddish birthmark in it that some people notice within 10 second of meeting me and some 10 years.
9. I'm quite tall. You'd better start buying some season tickets. I like wearing shorts. Dunk, dunk!
10. Sometimes I like to quote movies (but not as much as some of my friends, who quote movies like it's their job. Seriously, ten minute conversations.).
11. I didn't know what mayonnaise was until sophomore year of college because my mom spent my whole childhood calling Miracle Whip "mayonnaise."
12. I love jam with cheddar cheese. Some people seem to find this strange.
13. I like animals to be fat. Not so much pets because I don't want them to have health problems (although the fat ones are the cutest), but all animals in artistic renderings must be a bit husky in my book.

A little eye candy before I go to bed:

These adorable owl notecards are from boygirlparty. I got them as a gift for someone, but am so unbelievably tempted to keep them for my own!


These little mirrors are from My Favorite Mirror. These I was smart on: two for gifts, one for me (the first one, the snowy owl)!

Yesterday Was Plain Awful...

(you can say that again)

Yesterday was plain awful!

I think I actually spent about 75% of my day at work yesterday on the verge of tears. I'm just so frustrated with the learning curve. It gets discouraging to be corrected all day. It's all part of the continuing student atmosphere, and I know it will be good for me in the end. I respect and like the people I'm working with. I'm just having a hard time finding the balance between developing my own style as a clinician and learning to do things the way they want me to do them. I have no problem taking constructive criticism for the things that I don't know how to do. But the few things I actually feel competent...those are the things that are upsetting me because then the criticism is so unexpected. I'm sure next week will be better.

But that's not now, that's then!

Last night was our last night housesitting. It will be soooooo good to sleep in my own bed tonight! The cats will be happy, too. I love Joe, and I actually don't mind walking him at 6:00 am when I've gotten enough sleep, but I could not sleep well at their house. Part of it was that DH has been so busy with school that he was usually out studying at a coffee shop and going to bed alone in a strange house is a little scary. Also, I needed their ceiling fan on to stay cool enough, but it has this arhythmic ticking noise that was driving me crazy. Today I napped for about three hours. I haven't been able to sleep during the day for more than an hour in at least six months, so I knew I was exhausted.

I also learned Quicken today. That is, after I spend an hour and a half trying to get the user manual printed out on both sides of the paper. That's not something I've done before with our printer (and it's a slooooow printer), so it was a battle, but I won in the end. I only set up the basic cash flow functions, but I think it will be useful now that I'm taking over managing the finances--trying to give DH less to worry about with school getting so busy.

So yesterday was made up for by a relaxing day today where I actually managed to chill and not overschedule/overplan myself. Tonight we went to watch a friend's soccer game and DH agreed to fill in for them at their next game when they'll be short three players. Yay! I think DH would love playing on a team. He loved it in high school, it would give him great exercise, and get him meeting some new people. I'm not sure why he's resisted it so far; I suspect shyness. Anyway, maybe he'll have enough fun to make him take the plunge.

We also went bowling with the same friends. I got one strike, which is decent for me, pitiful bowler that I am. And we have tentative plans for a pedicure tomorrow morning, followed by "The Notorious Bettie Page" and some wine in the evening.

Kudos to whomever is able to correctly identify the song quoted above.

BTW, I feel soooooo lucky that I was able snag one of the wee wonderfuls pattern books before they sold out! I actually had to devise a delicately-executed plan with my husband in order to place the order as I had to be in the car en route to work when they went on sale. He, of course, came through 100%. I can't wait until my machine comes back!

Antsy Pantsies

My week of housesitting is nearing an end, but I just couldn't stay away from the blog another day, despite the fact that this is cutting into precious sleep time. You have no idea how protective I can be of my sleep time. Try living in a 9-hours-per-night body in a 6-hours-per-night world. It can get ugly.

The principal duties involved in sitting with this house involve sitting with the dog, Joe. Also, walking, feeding, and otherwise loving Joe. This is easy to do as I have mentioned before. His family comes back Friday morning so my time with him is nearing an end.

As much as I enjoy him, I am eager to get back to my own personal pursuits that do not revolve around sniffing every blade of grass in the park. Another key part of the house sitting is the watering of the plants. These people have a beautiful backyard. I may be easily impressed, given my lack of gardening experience; although, my mother is quite a gardener, so I like to think I know something good when I see it. However, all this horticulture is giving me ants in the pants regarding my own green thumbery. I've been doing much basic (very, very, oh-so basic) reading on container gardening, but then I started to think that I wanted to start with a cactus in a container and some catnip in the ground. I'm considering doing a whole little cat garden in a corner of our tiny backyard. So I did some research at Barnes & Noble and uncovered the horrifying truth that this is simply a disastrous time of year to be planting much of anything in Tucson. It seems that 105-degree temps are not loved by many plants. Go figure. So I am supremely frustrated that all my gardening mojo has to continue to be put on hold.

My current revised plan is to visit a local nursery and ask them if they don't think I could just start a little barrel cactus in a container, maybe with a little shade? And I already have some oat grass seeds (also for cats) that I could maybe try to germinate indoors. By the time it's ready to be planted outdoors, it may be fall, and I may be on a transplanting spree. Of course, this is poor, poor timing because that is just when I expect my hours at work to be picking up. I need to get all my projects in now!

This is why I'm always struck dumb when my friends ask what I am possibly doing with all my free time now that I'm only working two days a week. No one seems able to imagine how I could manage to fill all the long, lonely hours. It is unsurprising to me that I have proven that I could spend the rest of my life in non-occupational activities. I have no problem filling a single minute. I suspect this comes from the only-child upbringing. I've never had a problem entertaining myself. It's not too hard to get my interested in much of anything. This can make me a little ADHD. I often find myself walking into a room to do something, only to become distracted by something else in my line of sight that needs doing. This tangential task invariably involves relocation to yet another room, where I stumble upon yet another task. You'd be amazed how quickly this can fill a day. My other major talent is compiling more and more projects to add to the looooooong list of things I want to do in life; although, I seem to spend most of my life planning rather than doing. But I so enjoy the planning. And one plan leads to another and must be thoroughly researched and charted before execution...this is where I also get a bit OCD.

So, in the spirit of doing, I am sad/glad to report that my sewing machine is now back on track to be repaired; I will not be purchasing a new one. I'm glad that negotiations between the shop and DH have reached amicable conclusions (they knocked $30 off the fee), but they haven't even ordered the part yet, so I fear at least another couple of weeks sans machine. Like the gardening, I yearn to sew, but not so much that I'll resort to hand-sewing. In the meantime, I'm keeping busy with other small projects.

Two years ago I had three knee operations in three months. They were minor, but required a lot of time off the feet and my mother gave me a little embroidery project kit. I never got to it during my rehab because I was doing so much copy editing at the time, but I rediscovered the kit during The Great Craft Reorganization of 2006 and decided to give it a go. It was just a simple little design, but I like it and it came together quickly. It came with a hideous mat to mount it on though, so I've decided to make my own out of some fabric scraps (again, waiting for the sewing machine) and will frame it (and quilt it?). Not sure whether I'll keep it or give it away. Not sure I have a place in which to keep it, but I like it's connection as a thistle to my Scottish roots.

I've also spray-painted some tins for probable office desk use. There are actually four, but the biggest round one still needs one more coat. I also bought some paint to add a little something to their lids, but I'm not sure what yet. I have some design ideas of my own in mind, but I don't think I've painted anything since high school, and I was never very handy with a brush. I considered stencils, even looked at some at JoAnn's, but I wasn't happy with any of them and I'm kind of liking the idea of the challenge anyway so I'll try some sketches and see what I can come up with. I'm supposed to be trying to drag some of that dormant creativity back into the light of day anyway, right? From whatever recesses grad school beat it into?

One last yearning I will address today, but don't anticipate even trying to do anything about, is taking some dance classes. I'm not a horrible dancer; I can keep a beat. But I can only do some standard white-girl moves, nothing remotely impressive. I'm not one of those girls who seem to have natural dancing ability and control over their bodies, but I don't see any reason why I couldn't attain that. And the delusions of grandeur swell with the current "So You Think You Can Dance?" season on air, which I am as ridiculously addicted to as I get to "America's Next Top Model" (although, I personally don't think this is nearly as shameful as an ANTM addiction, for which I have no excuse or explanation). Watching all those brilliantly gifted people for two hours straight makes it start to look like anyone could learn it, then I get in front of the mirror and...I've got nothin'. You'd think the seven years of tap I had would have left me with some skills. Okay, maybe you wouldn't think that, but I would like to think that. Regardless, they haven't.

DH and I were given the very generous wedding gift of about a dozen private ballroom dance lessons before our wedding. They were great fun (yes, even for him! Or at least so he said), but we weren't exactly on even footing (no pun intended) given that it took him half those lessons just to learn to "hear the one," the other half to tear his eyes away from his feet, and he never quite got over the tongue shoved into his cheek (a classic sign of DH concentration). In hindsight, I think he was rushed by our instructor, who, understandably, just wanted to give us some fun choreography for the wedding (which he did). So, my point is, I would like to take more dance lessons, but I'm not sure DH would be up for it at the level I am. Never minding the fact that there's no way he has time for dancing of any kind, given that I've seen him for a total of maybe two hours this week. Perhaps I'll start with the cardio dance class at my gym and see what happens from there.

Just a little eye candy for the road...

Some killer notecards I just got! I love the girly pink with the tomboy bugs!


The Father's Day card I sent my dad last week. I just really liked the image.

How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?

Well, the house is in better shape than it was...but that's not saying much. It's amazing how disorganized this organization spree has made me. I'm ~90% done with the craft bookcase. Now I've pulled all these piles out from under my desk, where I'd shoved them during finals or some other such stressful time, and am sifting through that mess, trying to make sense of it and convince myself that it can all be trashed. It's getting there.

Tomorrow we start housesitting for some friends for a week, so that will tear me away from the mess for a little while. I'm actually looking forward to it; they have the sweetest dog, Joe (pit bull/lab, I think). I can't wait for a dog of our own. We've been planning for quite a while now (years?) to get a golden doodle or two once we have a house, but that's at least a year away, so for now I will just borrow Joe. Golden Doodles are a mix between a pure bred poodle and golden retriever. The idea is that they get the coat (more of less) of the poodle, so they don't shed much, if at all, and are pretty hypoallergenic. They come in all sorts of colors and sizes, depending on the sort of poodle that is bred. And they're quite smart and are excellent family dogs (per the goldens). Also, if you get a first or second generation (i.e., pups from the poodle/retriever mix, or pups from the mix of a golden doodle with a poodle, respectively), you get the best of all genes so they're very healthy, bright, and beautiful. It's a fairly new breed (1980s, I think...) and not yet recognized by the kennel clubs (no matter to us), but we're hoping that by the time we're actually ready for the pups we'll be able to find one at a shelter. It's hard for us to think of dealing with a breeder, being raised as hardcore shelter supporters, but we know our personal limitations in regards to dog-rearing. In order to be successful puppy parents, we really feel that we need to know what we're getting. I'm sure it will all work out when the time comes.

Slept through spinning class today...oops. Usually I can take little power naps and my body just wakes up when it's supposed to. I cut it too close today. Will have to make up for it on Friday. Maybe a little pre-yoga cardio?

No word yet on the sewing machine. DH is in class tonight (network engineer by day, MBA by night), so I haven't heard whether the repair shop called him back yet about ordering the gear for him to try to install himself. I worked more on my reused Christmas card gift tags though.
Some of them came out quite nice, if large. I didn't do anything fancy with them, but I think they'll be fun to use at holiday time. At any rate, it used up a long-growing envelope of cards (there have to be over 50 tags), not to mention much construction paper, so it was a decent stash-reducing activity. It also inspired me to consider using more media in the future (e.g., fabric scraps, glitter, rick rack, etc.). I've never been much into paper crafts, but even this limited excursion into that area was fun.

I've been reading about lots of bloggers out there making commitments to use what they have for a month or so, prohibiting themselves from buying more fabric, yarn, etc. in order to force themselves to use what's already in their stashes. I'm doing my own personal version of this now. I'm trying not to spend any money on anything (save gas, medications, emergencies, postal costs, other absolute necessities) for one week, including food (unless, e.g., one ingredient needed to complete a recipe--anything that gets me to cook is a good thing), clothes, fun stuff. Just a little exercise in budgeting. You'd be amazed how hard this is. No, scratch that. It's not hard in and of itself, but two days feels like it's already been a week. I feel like I'm thinking about it constantly--like a diet! But I like that it's forcing me to entertain myself with things I already have to do around the house (witness the Christmas cards). But, my Container Gardening for Dummies book came, and I want so badly to run out and buy some pots and plants to start my first, true gardening experience ever. This little spending-halt is forcing me to plan out exactly what I want to get, though, so I think it will be beneficial to the garden in the end. I'm hoping that this experiment will also result in a noticeable reduction in the bills this month, but I realize I could just end up spending more than usual next week in compensation. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I also made my first student loan payment today! Yay! This is exciting as it is yet another reminder that I am no longer in school and (thank goodness!) actually have a job again. Oh yeah, another small thing, my diploma finally arrived! Nice tangible reminders all around.

Baby Steps to Productivity

Trying out a new font today. How do we like it?

I think I've finally got all the storage components needed in order to whip the craft bookcase and, at this point, the whole office back into shape. And none to soon for DH, who has been more than patient. My patience is wearing thin, too. I want to get back to actually making something! Not preparing to do, doing! To that end, last night I gave up on the mess and sat down in front of the TV to the very soothing activity of cutting out Christmas cards I have saved over the last, oh, I don't know, roughly five years, in order to make gift tags, more cards, bookmarks, ornaments, etc. Even DH got into the act! Who knows how many more years it will take to actually assemble these trinkets, but the first step is accomplished and it felt good to do something even remotely right-brained after all this left-brained activity.

I also used some of this newly purchased scrapbook paper (I didn't mean to be buying anything new, but I couldn't help it when I saw this paper, and it quickly filled a need, so it's hereby justified) to make pencil holders for my desk. The one with the colored pencils is made the old-school kindergarten way: from a cleansed pea soup can. The second one is a holder I already had but didn't like. So they both have pretty new outfits and will live in harmony among my other office supplies. They are now the spruciest things on my desk. Perhaps I have more organizational devices that can be prettied up with a little paper and glue...? Or maybe DH will let me at his pen holder!

I watched two movies over the past two days, neither of which was terribly good. The first was Hitch, which was cute. And I do love Will Smith. Still, kept thinking about other things I could be doing. The second was Closer, which I was warned would be upsetting and not a happy movie. It definitely was not a happy movie, but I honestly didn't find it that upsetting because I couldn't bring myself to actually care about any of the characters. I found them all utterly unlikable and thought they were all silly for putting up with each other. Maybe I was having suspension of disbelief issues, or maybe I'm just lucky enough not to know people so lacking in integrity and self-control and lots of other values I hold dear. Anyway, I'd been meaning to see both for a while, so at least they're off my list.

And now I must to bed as tomorrow is a workday. By the way, apparently speech-language pathology is now the 38th best job in America, according to CNNMoney. But software engineer is number 1, which always seemed rather dull to me, as explained to me by DH. But I think they look at things like stress level, flexibility, creativity, and opportunities for advancement, too, so maybe it makes up in other areas for what it lacks in variety (my apologies to any software engineers who find their jobs more exciting than I imagine them to be).

There'll Soon Be a Method to the Madness

Alas, almost a week with no posting. After the big to-do I made last time about finally being able to post pics again, too.

As you know, the sewing machine bug hit our house and it's been at the repair shop all week. The estimate was ~$100, but the machine (White 1740) is only worth ~$150, so I'm trying to decide whether to repair it or upgrade a bit. I haven't had horrible problems with it, but the problems I do have, I expect are going to bother me more as I become more skilled at sewing. Also, what if it breaks down again? I've had it for about three years, but those were the three years I've been in grad school, so really it's been used very little. Probably less than a year's worth of weekly sewing. And, the gear that broke was the stitch pattern selector, probably the least-used feature thus far. My husband wants to ask them if they'll order the gear and let him try his hand at the labor. This makes me wary.

I've also discovered that I think I have an emotional attachment to the machine. I've been looking into others (Brother CS6000t), in case I do decide to spring for a new one, and found one that looks better for about the same price as mine. But I hesitate to take the plunge and bring this strange, new machine into my home. What if it doesn't like me? My husband finds it amusing and has reminded me of the old Prelude he used to drive in college and how it hated me and yet I loved it still and was sad to see it go. Yes, I know this is crazy. Welcome to my head.

So, without the sewing machine, I shifted my attention elsewhere and it landed on the abominable mess that has been my craft bookshelf these past three years. I began a massive overhaul of it's current structure, much to the chagrin of my husband who could barely make it across the floor to his computer, which shares the same room, due to the sprawling wreckage of what I had unloaded from the shelves. I told him that he needed to work on his flexibility, both physical and mental.

I am nowhere near done yet, but my fabric is now sorted into large, medium, small, and tiny pieces, by color and/or theme: All stored in U-Haul file boxes, which I covered with contact paper (you can, unfortunately, still read the logo through the white paper, but less so). I now seem to be spending our life savings on various sized plastic organizers from Michael's and JoAnn's for the various notions, stamps, paints, pens, paper, etc. that also need homes. I had had them in baskets. The baskets looked nice, but they soon became overstuffed dumping grounds when I didn't know where to put things. The baskets will have to find new homes. Perhaps for bathroom towels?

Today was a day of tedious errands, still not yet complete. Grocery shopping exhausts me, so I was happy to find a sale on at Aeropostale while the watch people were putting a new battery in my watch. Then it was off to JoAnn's for aforementioned plastic storage bins. But, upon arriving home, I have discovered that the shirts I bought DH are too short for his long torso, and when the JoAnn's clerk swapped out my ArtBin for one with a UPC code at the register, she gave me a broken one. So off I go again for multiple returns. The idea of more errands is almost heartbreaking, but I have fortified myself with a Godiva Double Chocolate Raspberry Truffle and some blogging, and so I am ready to face the world again.

Success with Firefox!

(Ali, thanks for the sweet comments! You're my lone reader until I get around to alerting friends and family to the fact that I'm doing this. Want to make sure it sticks first.)

Aha! After two days of no image posting capability, I finally followed someone's recommendation of trying to go through Firefox...and it worked! So if any readers are having the same problem, give that a go. Also, Blogger is apparently working on the situation, so we must be patient. I know, not always a virtue of mine either.
Impatiens (he he!). Yes, I know, now I'm just showing off my image upload abilities.

Nothing else doing here. Am home from the day job and swamped with copy editing. Bought my first scrubs. Didn't realize they came in such a wide variety these days (they even had tall sizes! In the store!). I'm off to play with the red pen now...

"Cat" Bowl

I dropped the poor sewing machine off as planned this morning. I had no idea they kept those things so long, being lucky enough to need no previous repairs. The first place I called said two weeks! The second said one and I went with them. Already I don't know what to do with myself.
What I did do with myself was hit the second-hand bookstore. No, no, not to buy, to sell. We're now up to more than $150 in credit there, so maybe we should start buying. But I've cleared two whole shelves from my bookcase, which is refreshing and happy. I feel all clean and organized. And now hubby has a shelf for his school books, instead of having to heap them all on the floor.

I also went to Petsmart in pursuit of a bigger and better food bowl. Now that we have three furbabies we've been finding ourselves refilling the bowls at least once a day, which we are too lazy to tolerate. These cats are grazers of dry food, a blessing for the couch potato owner who doesn't want to do the twice a day planned meal thing (pretty much true for how we feed ourselves as well). It was driving husband especially batty, so off I went to Petsmart. Turns out, all cat bowls are pretty small, so I meandered into the doggy aisle and--low and behold!--a food bowl bonanza! They make some really attractive food bowls these days, by the way. I brought home a couple of nine-inchers; will return one, couldn't make a decision in the store. This is the one I think I've settled on:

It matches my new blue/black/white color scheme for the kitchen, and it's fun! If hubby hates it (he of low tolerance for "busy-ness"), I also got a pretty solid blue one, so I'd be happy either way. The thing is mammoth! The cats could probably stand in it as they dine. I'm hoping this will encourage less food competition as they could all eat out of it at once. For now poor Lita won't eat if she thinks anyone is even looking in her general direction.

I did some cutting of apron fabric last night. I really think cutting is my least favorite part of sewing; although, I finally got the guts to use my rotary cutter on some long, straight, and gently curving lines last night and met with success. That made it go a little faster. All this advanced cutting has forced me to come up with some storage solutions to keep everything organized so I'm stowing all cut pieces and necessary notions in labeled Ziploc baggies for now. This sewing machine repair hiatus may force me through the most dreaded part for several projects, giving me a little jump start once it returns. Or so we hope...

My gym is finally starting their summer classes today, so this will by first spinning class in at least six months. My head is excited and my booty a little trepidatious. Those first two classes are doozy on the seat. But I'm all set with my heart rate monitor, so it should be a good workout. Of course, I haven't bought my summer session fitness class pass yet, the line for which is generally miles on the first day of classes, so I'll have to arrive 50 minutes early and pray. Maybe I'll bring my Sudoku for company. Wish me luck!

p.s. Wrote this entry hours ago; have not yet posted because I was having trouble adding pics. Situation doesn't seem to be improving, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Sorry for the pictureless entry!